Will the Western world wake up in time so that we can survive the 30-year war that will take place after we leave Iraq?

By
Ed Koch

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | To those who believe that when America leaves Iraq, Islamic terrorists will be
satisfied and stop fighting, I say this: Wake up. The hard truth is that if we
leave Iraq, the terrorists will continue their attacks on Americans everywhere,
including our homeland. And they will use Iraq as the new base of their terrorist
regime.

In a May 28th New York Times article, reporters Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet
provided a chilling report on what the future holds. The article begins, "When
Muhammad al-Darsi got out of prison in Libya last year after serving time for
militant activities, he had one goal: killing Americans in Iraq. A
recruiter...told him he was not needed in Iraq. Instead, he was drafted into the
war that is seeping out of Iraq. A team of militants from Iraq had traveled to
Jordan, where they were preparing attacks on Americans and Jews..."

In other words, the terrorist jihad will continue and many of the terrorists will
be those who are now fighting in Iraq. It cannot be stated often enough that the
goal of the Islamic terrorists is the destruction of Western civilization and the
restoration of the caliphate. The caliphate would unite all Muslims in one
theocratic state, running from and including Spain to Indonesia, encompassing
nearly 1.4 billion Muslims.

In a Times article on May 27th by Michael Gordon and Alissa Rubin, they report,
"'Many militias and terrorist groups are just waiting for the Americans to leave,'
said Salim Abdullah, the spokesman for the Iraqi Accordance Front, the largest
Sunni Arab group in the parliament." The article continues, "A bare majority of
Iraq's 275-member parliament recently signed a petition promoted by Mr. Sadr that
called for a timetable for American troops to depart. Even so, the petition said
the Americans should not leave until Iraqi security forces were ready to take over
the job...[A Shiite tribal sheik said] 'But leaving, withdrawing completely from
Iraq, that means erasing Iraq from the map.'"

The article reported on a poll taken by ABC News in Baghdad which showed, "About 64
percent of Baghdad residents [polled in February and March] said American forces
should remain until security was restored...or until Iraqi forces could operate
independently."

Everyone, including the president and his advisers, and of course, his Democratic
opponents, recognize that the heretofore efforts and tactics of the U.S. have not
prevailed and must change. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said recently,
"I think that the handwriting is on the wall that we are going in a different
direction in the fall, and I expect the president to lead it." The "surge," an
increase of 30,000 American soldiers on the ground, will be over by then. If it
works, we can all admit our doubts that it would.

What will the "different direction" that McConnell referred to be? The radical
Democratic left inside the Congress led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader
Harry Reid and their supporters believe that the U.S. should get out now and
certainly no later than early next year. >From the administration come vague
comments that there may be a reduction of 100,000 troops in the wind sometime in
2008. The Times reports in a May 26th article by David E. Sanger and David S.
Cloud, "The Bush administration is developing what are described as concepts for
reducing American combat forces in Iraq by as much as half next year, according to
senior administration officials in the midst of the internal debate."

In my judgment, were it possible to remain in Iraq and accomplish the obvious goals
of bringing a true peace among the warring parties  Sunni, Shiite and Kurd 
with a stable central government accepted by all, that would, of course, be ideal.
But the Shiite majority does not want to forgive the Sunnis who oppressed them for
so many years, and will not share government power or oil revenues with them. The
Sunnis, who are 20 percent of the population, appear to be militarily more capable
than the Shia and are primarily responsible for the car bombs and the improvised
explosive devices that have killed American soldiers and Iraqis, both military
personnel and civilians. It is devastating for American soldiers to learn that
those serving in the Iraqi army, being trained by and fighting alongside American
soldiers, cannot be trusted.

A May 28th Times article by Michael Kamber reported on an incident in February
"When [American] soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched
the bomber's body, they found identification showing him to be a Sergeant in the
Iraqi army." Kamber quotes an American soldier, "I thought 'what are we doing
here? Why are we still here?...We're helping guys that are trying to kill us. We
help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us."

My own view is that the administration should demand the Iraqi government pass the
power and oil sharing changes immediately, and if it doesn't, we should get out
immediately. Further, and I have stated it many times, we should give our regional
Arab and NATO allies an ultimatum that if they don't come in now with troops, we
will leave immediately.

Waiting for the Iraqi army to be battle ready is like waiting for Godot. They seem
to know how to kill U.S. soldiers and terrorize each other and innocent civilians,
but are unable to keep the peace.

Many Americans refuse to believe the Islamic terrorists are a threat to the free
world and those who talk of the danger are thought of as war mongers. They simply
refuse to take them at their word as many refused to take Hitler's warnings in Mein
Kampf seriously. In the Times article of May 29th, written by Michael Powell, he
quotes a woman in Atlanta asking candidate Giuliani, "Why does so much of the world
hate us? Haven't we failed to understand Arab grievances? We misinterpret their
word 'jihad' which is not necessarily a hostile word." Truly an Alice In
Wonderland view.

A terrorist recently convicted in Great Britain was deported to Jamaica after
trial. The Times reports in an article of May 26th by Alan Cowell, "Mr. Faisal had
been convicted in February 2003 of soliciting murder and inciting racial
hatred...urging his followers to kill Hindus, Christians, Jews and American
citizens...During Mr. Faisal's trial, prosecutors played a videotape showing him
telling 150 young followers after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States that
the Koran justified attacks on non-Muslims. He was also heard to promise teenage
Muslim boys that their reward in paradise would be 72 virgins if they died as
religious martyrs."

You can't make this stuff up. Will we and the rest of the Western world wake up in
time so that we can survive the 30-year war that will take place after we leave
Iraq? They want to kill us, and apparently, many Americans don't believe it.

One more thought. If we stay, we should tell the Iraqi people in each province
that if a significant number of them support the insurgents and terrorists against
our soldiers, or if a significant number of them do not step forward and assist us
by providing information to protect us from the insurgents and terrorists, we will
leave that province and not protect them from those who want to kill them in a
religious civil war. Perhaps the recognition that U.S. soldiers will no longer be
considered expendable may raise thoughts of cooperation, if only for their own
self-protection.

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JWR contributor Edward I. Koch, the former mayor of New York, can be heard on Bloomberg Radio (WBBR 1130 AM) every Sunday from 9-10 am . Comment by clicking here.